Many mechanical designs employ retaining rings. The purpose of the retaining ring is to axially position a component on a shaft or within a bore, and to limit the movement of the component in a given direction, thereby setting the limits of assembly movement for that particular component. Retaining rings may be classified as either internal or external. Internal retaining rings fit into a housing or a bore while external retaining rings fit over a shaft or a pin.
One such example where external retaining rings are used is in the clutch assemblies of automatic transmissions. Clutch assemblies are used in automatic transmissions to selectively engage and disengage rotating members of different planetary gear sets. U.S. Pat. No. 6,811,349 to Loe et al., issued Nov. 2, 2004 to the assignee of the present invention, and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety, discloses one such external retaining ring design for an automatic transmission clutch assembly. The Page invention seeks to cure one of the problems facing an external retaining ring, which is dislodgment due to centrifugal force. As the shaft in which the retaining ring is disposed rotates at high speed, the retaining ring may have a tendency to expand and thereby become loose within the groove and perhaps even expelled from the groove.